1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to rolling mills producing hot rolled steel products such as bars, rods and the like, and is concerned in particular to an improvement in the retarded cooling of such products in insulated containers commonly referred to as "pots".
2. Description of the Prior Art
It is known to form hot rolled steel products such as bars, rods and the like into helical ring formulations which are accumulated in coil form in insulated pots. The difficulty with such arrangements is that the vertical distance the rings travel as they descend into the pots varies considerably from the beginning to the end of a coil forming cycle. This varying drop distance adversely affects uniformity of ring distribution and density from the bottom to the top of the coil, thus contributing to coil instability while also disadvantageously increasing coil size.
The primary objective of the present invention is the provision of an improved pot and associated adjustable coil support which operate in concert to maintain the top of the coil being formed in the pot at an optimum substantially constant height. By doing so, ring density and distribution is optimized and maintained substantially constant from the bottom to the top of the coil, which in turn minimizes coil size while maximizing coil stability.